1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods for imaging and treating hypoplastic, absent, anatomically displaced or ectopic tissues and organs and to a kit suitable for use therefor.
The invention also relates to methods for detecting the condition of adjacent organs and detecting tissue retained after surgical removal of an organ.
The invention also relates to methods of treating and ablating hypoplastic and ectopic tissues or normal tissues.
The invention also relates to methods for protecting normal tissue during radiation or chemotherapy of cancer, and composition and kits useful in the method.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There is a need for a method that clearly delineates hypoplastic, absent, anatomically displaced or ectopic tissue or organs and for a method for treating conditions involving such tissues or organs.
It is important in certain clinical situations to detect the presence or absence of particular tissues or organs. Moreover, it is often necessary to determine whether an organ is anatomically correct and whether it has pathology by a non-invasive technique. It would be desirable to have an organ imaging method using organ-specific imaging agents that would make it possible to obtain a “positive” image of the organ, when normal, and a defect in organ visualization if pathology is present. Such a method would provide a new approach to scintigraphic and magnetic resonance imaging of organs and tissues in the body based upon their immunological specificity.
Normal tissues and organs have been imaged by magnetic resonance imaging techniques, but not with the use of imaging-enhancing contrast agents, and not with antibody-conjugated imaging agents.
Methods of imaging tumors and infectious lesions using labeled antibodies and antibody fragments which specifically bind markers produced by or associated with tumors or infectious lesions have been disclosed, inter alia, in Hansen et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,927,193 and Goldenberg, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,331,647, 4,348,376, 4,361,544, 4,468,457, 4,444,744, 4,460,459 and 4,460,561, and in related pending applications U.S. Ser. Nos. 609,607 and 633,999, the disclosures of all of which are incorporated herein in their entireties by reference. See also DeLand et al., J. Nucl. Med., 20, 1243-50(1979).
These methods use radiolabeled antibodies which specifically bind to markers produced by or associated with tumors or infectious lesions, and result in a “positive” image, i.e., uptake of radioactivity attached to the antibody in the structure involved with tumor or infectious lesion and having the appropriate antibody target, thus permitting a visualization of the involved structure. Further improvements in the specificity and resolution of these methods is achieved by the use of various substraction techniques which are also disclosed in the aforementioned references, and which enable background, non-specific radioactivity to be distinguished from specific uptake by the tumor or lesion.
Antibody conjugates comprising organ-specific and tissue-specific antibodies and addends for scintigraphic detection or magnetic resonance image enhancement have not been used as organ imaging reagents.
A need continues to exist for imaging and therapeutic methods which are more sensitive and specific and for organ imaging and therapeutic reagents and methods with high specificity for differentiation of particular organs and tissues from surrounding structures.